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The way to deal with all the misleading clothing donation bins around town is simple. But you wouldn’t know it based on the city’s response.

Ottawa, like a number of cities, has many large clothing donation bins placed around town. While they’re all about the same size and shape, not all have a clear purpose. A Salvation Army bin placed on Salvation Army property is unambiguous. But the boxes around town on both public and private property labeled Ottawa Clothing Donation don’t seem to have a charitable purpose.

Such boxes have led to complaints from legitimate charities. The Rockland Help Centre, which raises funds for a local food bank, saw its donations drop by half when other boxes showed up in the community.

Councillor concern

Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley has been leading the charge on this for more than a year. His motivation makes sense: Seeing more boxes around his community, he’s concerned they’re both scams and litter. So he’s getting to the bottom of it. That’s what a good councillor does.

However it’s a little surprising to learn city staff, in response to an inquiry made by Hubley, compiled a report on how to deal with clothing bins on private property. The report was tabled at last Tuesday’s economic development committee. The three options are so obvious any of us could have written them.

The first is self-regulation: “The placement of such clothing donation boxes would continue on in the open market where private land owners and business operators would negotiate these matters on their own terms.”

The second is information based: “The public would be cautioned to determine for themselves the status of a particular donation box operator”.

And the third — government’s favourite option — regulation! Mandated signage and / or licensing are the suggested options. Thanks but no thanks.

Staff shouldn’t be faulted for doing their job. Nor should Hubley for being engaged in his community. But at some point you’ve got to realize the presence of big boxes and bags of garbage at unwanted locations doesn’t need a report or committee. You just need a garbage truck to haul them away.

Littering already violates bylaws. Placing objects on public or private property without permission is not allowed. By all means, time spent tracking down repeat offenders is time well spent. But no staff report or committee conversation can facilitate that.

Council already wasted time on this back in March, approving a resolution banning clothing bins that didn’t have charitable status from city property.

Real charities

While it served as a symbol of the city’s support for real charities and a disapproval of boxes that prey on those charities, the city never needed a resolution authorizing it to clear public property of debris, which is essentially what that did.

The report’s first and second recommendations — which can be filed under “common sense” — are the right ones. If it’s on private property, let the landowner deal with it. Also, be informed. You may not be giving to charity, you may just be littering by dumping your old clothes beside a bin that is itself litter.

The only thing worse than the government working to solve a problem that doesn’t exist is when they work to solve a problem that already has a solution.

Angela Merkel’s proposed burka ban is huge news not so much because of what it is but because of who’s saying it. She’s one of the last politician in Europe you’d expect to float the idea. It means these sorts of policy ideas are well on their way to becoming acceptable fodder in mainstream, centrist politics.